Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system peer-to-peer communication, and more particularly to a server information handling system configuration by peer-to-peer networking.
Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Server information handling systems are typically centrally located in a data center that has specialized infrastructure to provide networking, power and cooling resources. Often, plural server information handling systems are stacked in racks that have plural slots to provide infrastructure interfaces. For example, a typical server rack includes multiple power supplies and a communication switch that each supports server information handling systems installed in slots of the rack. Racks are disposed in a room having a controlled environment, such as with cooling air vented near each rack. The server information handling systems typically include a baseboard management controller (BMC) that allows remote support operations, such as network-based power-up, power-down, component monitoring, firmware updates and other management operations. Generally, BMC's communicate with administrative tools through an out-of-band management network that is separate from the networks that the server information handling systems functionally serve. For instance, a server information handling system serves client requests responsive to enterprise functions performed over the Internet through a primary network interface and is managed by administrative network tools through a secondary management network.
In modern cloud networking configurations, physical server information handling systems provide physical processing resources that support virtual processing devices, such as virtual machines. As a result, in a given data center, a physical mapping of enterprise functions to the physical machine performing the enterprise functions is often not immediately available and frequently changing. In effect, the physical maintenance of server information handling systems is separate from the maintenance of virtual machines that run over the physical systems. As a physical server information handling system runs into difficulty executing an enterprise function, such as due to processing load or failure of components, the enterprise function virtual machine migrates to different physical resources. Although cloud networking helps to achieve efficient use of processing resources, it does tend to increase the difficulty of identifying and addressing physical processing resource failures and maintenance since there is little available direct relationship between difficulties in performing processing functions and difficulties with underlying physical processing resources.
One advantage of cloud computing and other virtualized networking techniques is that server information handling systems become black boxes that can fit into server racks as needed to replace broken server systems or to expand processing capabilities available for virtual systems. Information technology administrators often work on data center floors to address physical resource maintenance and replacement independent of functional resources running over the information handling systems. Once a server information handling system is repaired or replaced at a rack slot, the information technology administrator powers the server up and configures the server to interact with the management and functional network resources. After the server information handling system is under the control of administrative tools through the management network, remote management controls are typically effective to return the server information handling system into the pool of functional resources.
One difficulty with maintenance and replacement of server information handling systems is that information technology administrators must correctly configure the server information handling system to interact with network resources. A variety of sometimes complex configuration settings are typically loaded onto server information handlings systems in order to bring the server information handling systems on-line, such as IP version 4 and 6 addresses, boot order, security credentials. BMC management settings, etc. . . . . Manual server configuration typically requires USB or other inputs at a system deployed a rack after installation in the rack. In some instances where multiple server information handling systems are deployed to a rack at the same time, the information technology administrator performs multiple configurations in a repeated manner with slightly different configuration information at each server information handling system. Initial configurations of new server information handling systems tend to be cumbersome and time consuming through bezel-LCDs, keyboard-video-mouse switches and remote configuration methods. The complexity of initial deployments and configurations tends to increase where large numbers of similar server information handling systems are deployed in a common area at the same time.